LION'S CORNER: Community service a year-round practice for Lions and Leos

When it comes to meeting challenges, our response is simple: We serve. In over 200+ countries and 1.4 million strong we serve in hospitals and senior centers, in regions battered by natural disaster, in schools and eyeglass recycling centers, Lions are doing community volunteer work, helping, leading, planning and supporting.

Because we’re local, we can serve the unique needs of the communities we live in. And because we’re global, we can address challenges that go beyond borders.

We want everyone to see a better tomorrow. That’s why we support sight programs and services including vision screenings, eye banks and eyeglass recycling. Provide eye care services to those at risk of losing their sight. And raise donations through campaigns like SightFirst and Campaign SightFirst II.

We believe everyone deserves a healthy life. From providing health programs that focus on hearing loss to supporting efforts to control and prevent diabetes, Lions volunteers are working to improve the health of children and adults around the world.

We empower the next generation. Whether it’s providing youth volunteer opportunities and leadership experiences in a Leo club or sharing a message of peace through our Peace Poster contest, our youth programs invest in the future by reaching out to young people.

We serve local communities — and protect the planet. From performing hands-on community work and service projects to providing emergency assistance, ourcommunity and environment programs improve our communities — and protect the environment.

When it comes to meeting challenges, our response is simple: We serve. Our volunteer projects unite Lions around the world. And our work is unconditional. We aren’t limited by continents or restricted to certain causes. Lions help wherever, whenever and however we can.

We believe that the world gets better and problems get smaller when people unite to serve their local and global community. Lions help where help is needed — in our own communities and around the world – with unmatched integrity and energy. Since 1917, Lions have strengthened communities through humanitarian projects and hands-on service. We serve neighbors who live next door and people on the other side of the world that we may never meet.

At our Mid-winter Conference over 125 lions and 20 leos travelled to Kodiak to learn more about being a Lion and jointly come together to share ideas on helping our communities. There was training encompassing officer training, leadership training, leo training, round table sharing of ideas, etc.

What a more beautiful place to hold a mid-winter conference. We had the pleasure of having International Director Karla Harris come to speak with us and share with us the International President’s ideas. Lions and Leos alike left with inspired and a better understanding about what we do as lions.